“That’s about it. Do you have any questions?”

After deciding to work on the investigation with Ren, she detailed to me about the case. Up until now, there has been three murder cases. The first happened in the middle of town, but the rest happened near the borders. Strangely enough, they were all happening on a Friday night.

From the dead bodies, these killings were all committed with a knife or some sharp object, so it clearly wasn’t a monster.

More than that, there was a clear suspect. After the night of the killing, one of the town folks goes missing.

“If the killings happen on Friday, shouldn’t we come back on Thursday and wait out the night?”

I asked what I thought was the simplest way to proceed.

“That’s a solid plan. But we don’t have time for that. And besides, what if the pattern changes? We’ve only seen three murder cases until now. We don’t wanna risk any more lives. So before we end up doing that, we should try to isolate the killer’s location first. But if all fails we can wait it out on thursday.”
“How are we gonna find where they are?”
“Good question, student!”

Ren pulled out a map from her pocket. On it was a large diagram of what seems to be Chester town. Around the town were areas of trees, just like the large forest area that surrounds the town. After this, Ren reached out to her small bag and pulled out a red pen.

“When I got here this morning, I was thinking about the murder. Basically, if they were happening periodically in the town, it most likely was one of two possibilities. First, the murderer lives in Chester town and second, the murderer lives near Chester town. This is probably the case since they would have to commute to Chester town to murder everytime. Just in case, I searched records of people leaving and entering Chester town and I couldn’t find anything.”
“So you are saying that we search the surrounding areas first?”
“Exactly!”

After her explanation, Ren started to circle a few locations on the forest area of the map.

“These are some of the areas with a cave that the mayor here talked about. From the wound that was on the body, it’s most likely that the killer isn’t especially trained. So if they are in a cave, they are probably in one of the more well known caves. I think this is a good place to start. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds good?”

I took a slight nod. I mean, there didn’t seem like there were any issues with the plan. It was mostly additional investigations before another murder happens on Friday.

But after hearing this plan, I had to ask,

“Uh Ren? Why did you even need me?”
“Hm?”

Ren looked up at me and tilted her head.

“Isn’t that obvious? Going through forest and caves alone gets so lonely. It’s too boring out here. And besides I can’t leave a student to help alone, especially if they are someone that wants to be like me!”

Ren took a big nod as she answered my question. I don’t remember ever telling her I wanted to be like her but I let her be.

“Oh yeah I forgot to ask. What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you subordinates forever.”

Whew.

“It’s Gray.”
“Well, let’s have fun in the next couple days, Gray.”

***

The two of us then immediately moved to two of the caves. However, in the caves, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to find any significant clues there.

With the sky getting a little bit dark, we decided to go back to our homes and return the day after. Strangely, Ren decided to accompany me back to my motel saying that “it's the duty of a mentor to make sure their subordinate is safe!” or something. It’s still embarrassing, but if that’s what’s going to net me the reward, I am completely fine.

It was kind of weird how she consistently asked me where I lived but maybe she’s into me? I couldn’t really tell.

“Hey Gray, why are you staying in a motel?”

Ren asked as we got out of the forest that connects Chester town and East Alyona.

I guess she was asking since it didn’t make much sense for an academy student to be resting in a motel instead of a dorm. I vaguely told her I was unable to use the dorm — something along the lines of not having enough money for the dorms — but she seemed unamused. She stopped walking and looked right towards my eyes.

“Gray, can I see your student id?”

I gave Ren a small laugh as she said this with a stern face. I spent a couple hours with her so I understood that she often made these types of jokes to me with a serious face. To follow up with her joke, I handed over my id card — one was given to all Alyona students. They were protected with some type of magic so it was impossible to forge them.

“Here you go officer; I didn’t do anything wrong.”

I playfully raised both of my hands high up in the air. After receiving the ID, Ren took a good stare at it, flipping it back and forth.

“Um, Ren? This is funny and all but can I have that back? The picture is kind of embarrassing.”
“Oh sure. Sorry about that.”

Ren gave off a slight smile as she handed back the ID card.

After our little roleplay, we arrived back at the motel.

“Welcome back little guy. Though, I thought you were staying alone.”

The Big Man standing at the counter greeted me normally. This time, however, he had a smug smile on his face.

“No no. That’s not it. I actually was gonna leave soon anyways,” Ren answered while scratching the back of her head.

The Big Man took a slight nod with his eyes closed. He then proceeded to look once towards Ren, then directly towards me. His face was nothing like I’ve ever seen from him before. It was the look of pity.

What’s this guy giving me pity for..?

I turned my face towards Ren. She was giving off an awkward smile while scratching her head. After a bit, she turned towards my direction.

“You said your classes end at three right? I’ll see you around that time tomorrow.”

I nodded.

My whole body was sweating from the long journey. I wanted to take a nice shower as quickly as possible. I gave a slight greeting to the Big Man and Ren then walked up the stairs to where my room was.

As I walked up, Ren leaned towards the big man and started talking to him. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite make out what they were talking about since I was already far up.

Hm… Is Ren the type that likes big muscles? Maybe I should start working out…

***

The unpleasant morning sun seeping through between my curtains broke my sleep.

After closing them with frustration, I got up from my bed stretching.

My muscles screaming from my lower half brought back the memories from yesterday.

I’ve never wanted to skip school more but missing class wasn’t an option for me anymore; I needed to study to get scholarships.

Unlike last year, I wasn’t living in a dorm. This meant I had to walk quite a bit to get to class.

When I arrived at central Alyona, an array of people were already crowding the area. As I got closer, I felt the warm breath of people hitting my skin, uncomfortably defrosting my skin.

All classes, apart from the first years who are arriving later this month, were posted on a large bulletin board in front of the center building.

“Hey I’m in the same class as Graham”
“Man, that's so lucky. I’m still stuck in B class.”

“We are in the same class again!”
“Yeah yeah, we can get lunch together!”

People around me had divided tones talking about who they were in class with. This was the most bustling time of the year. My ears were screaming for escape from all the noise.

None of this matters to me.

Friends are only a hindrance to the greater goals of my life.
…

“B class huh.”
This wasn’t unexpected or anything. While my practical scores weren’t very good, I still kept top exam grades throughout last year. Rather, I was surprised it wasn’t anything lower with all the rumors going around about me.

Kent, Hyunsung, Grace, Bang…
Who the hell are these guys?

After reading the rest of the people in my class, I saw that most of the crowd disappeared to their classrooms.

Finally some room to breathe. But this meant that class was starting soon. After quickly checking that my class was in the main building, I made my way towards class.

***

When I slid open the doors, I saw that most of the students were already in class.

“Look, look it’s gray…”

As I entered the room, I saw people slightly glancing at me. I tried to ignore them as best as possible and sat on the only open seat at the back. As a few minutes passed, the glancing died down and people returned to their own conversations.

With that, it became 9. Bells rung, placing students’ chatter to silence.

From the front door a woman entered. Presumably just below 30s or so. Her long messy hair, clearly unbrushed, dropped all the way below her shoulders. The dark circles drooping towards her cheeks gave almost an eerie vibe.

“Ah man we are screwed…”
“Our professor is that…”

Bang.

The woman dropping her books to the table made a large thud that stopped all the whispering.

“I’m professor Adalet. I’m gonna start with attendance. I will be calling your names. Names are in order of your ranking. Linca Behlmer-”

Professor Adalet called out the names one by one. My name was the 23rd to be called. 23rd out of 50 students. It wasn’t low but I had a while to go to get scholarships.

“With that, let’s begin with today’s class. It’s going to be short”

The professor walked up to the large board behind her and wrote Alyona Academy in large font.

“Alyona Academy was built to foster talented students to help protect the country. While it was to help fight in the war, now it is mainly to build those who will be fighting monsters. You at the front, what have you been taught here the last year.”
“Um.. it was mostly training to get used to different weapons and build stamina,” a male student in the front of the classroom answered hesitantly.
“That’s right. You may have been wondering why you are doing something so pointless. But from here on out we will be building on that foundation you created.”

Adalet walked back towards the board and wrote “magic” with a big circle around it.

“We are going to be learning Magic in the second year. As you know, magic is the control of various elements in the world. Each person has a different affinity to various objects. Magic then allows you to control the object, either change the shape or quality, for your benefit.”

The students around me all shook their heads.

“The problem is, the only person that can find this affinity is you. With that, here is your first assignment: take time this week and explore the facilities of the Academy. There are many locations built specifically to get people to find their affinities. Once you find something you are adept at, we will be splitting into groups. If you can’t, you will be training to better your mana and improve using weapons until you are able to find one. Preferably, I want you guys to group up and help each other find affinities.”

Affinity huh. Thats’ sounds interesting.
…
Wait, group up?

***

After the professor explained our assignment, she left the room. She did go on to explain some more fundamentals about magic, how you use them, and what we will be learning in the first semester, but none of this really came in my head after I heard the word group.

Other students were excitedly chatting about different elements they were interested in as they packed up. It was the first day but people were naturally talking with each other. Most likely those who were in the same class last year.

I, however, despite having some people in the same class from last year, still did not know anyone enough to work with them.

Hey, it’s not my fault I didn’t learn how to socialize.

Whatever, she didn’t say it was necessary to be in groups. I’ll figure it out by myself. I can ask the professor to be my partner or something if I need to.

Upon deciding that, I slowly slithered out the back door trying to garner any attention. I didn’t want to be asked anything about my rumor.

“Hey!”

A voice pierced towards my direction. A feminine voice. It was a clear soft voice but from the tone, the girl was angry.

I continued to walk, pretending to have not heard the voice. Frankly, I was quite scared. No one has directly confronted me after word spread about me insulting the royal family. Because so many Alyona students are tied to nobility I wanted to lessen my interactions with others as much as possible. Especially if it’s someone who is clearly angry at me.

“Hey! Hey!”

The calling continued. Slowly the voice got sharper and faster. More frantically yelling at me. It must have made her more angry that I continued walking without a response.

“Gray!”

Suddenly, the voice was right behind me. By now, it was inevitable for me to stop ignoring her. I turned towards the voice.

There, a blonde girl, a head shorter, was standing in front of me. She had a frustrated expression.

This was a face I recognized. One I saw during my time as a first year in the academy.

Her name was Linca Behlmer — the daughter of the knight that directly served the Royal Family.

***

Gulp

I was in trouble.

Throughout my first year here, I hadn’t interacted with too many people. Linca Behlmer certainly wasn’t one of them.

For someone like her to approach me all of a sudden indicated how angry she was. After all, this was the first time I had attended class after I moved out of my dorm.

“Did you really insult the Royal Family?”
There it was. As I expected, she directly came to me to confront me about the rumor.

However, I didn’t exactly know how to respond.

Linca Behlmer was quite famous in the school. Apart from her beauty, she was known as one of the most skilled members of our grade. The only thing that kept her out of the top class was her awful exam scores. Despite that she still kept the top ranking of class right below.

This wasn’t any surprising since she was a part of the famous Behlmer family.

But regardless of all this, the emotion I felt wasn’t admiration or respect. It was just fear.

A few ideas came into mind about how I should go about answering this question. But in the end, none of it really mattered. The shock and fear from seeing Linca in front of me so suddenly made me freeze.

I stood there, awaiting her next lines. Honestly, I was hoping that my silence was enough to stop the conversation. That way she would be bored of me and just leave.

And in the first place, I didn’t really know how to interact with people when they suddenly come up to you like this.

Linca didn’t seem to back down though.

She still stood in front of me, silently. Almost as though she was requesting an answer from me.

Almost two minutes passed since she stopped me.

“I won’t be asking you to pay more price for your insults for the royal family.”

Linca finally decided to break the silence.

“B..but instead I… I will crush you! Uh… during the battle classes..!”

Her body was visibly trembling. She seemed extremely angry about my insults. To the point where she couldn’t contain it in her words.

“I will make you pay your price..!”

While she did say that she wasn’t going to ask me to pay more than I already did, it seems as though her mind changed after talking to me.
I completely regret not saying anything. Maybe I could have apologized? Maybe I could have denied it. But the water was already split.

I paused for a second. This response I needed to give was important. I had to be as polite as possible if I wanted to avoid the “price” I was going to pay.

I prepared a slight smile and spoke in the softest voice I could mutter using everything that I learned from my experience at Hazeldine; I had to make the most noble-like expression I could.

“I understand Miss. Behlmer.”

I turned back and breathed in and out heavily.

Huff. Huff.

I quickly, yet carefully, made my way out of the school.

I was proud of my answer. Fighting back at an angry person like that was going to make this situation even worse. The best thing I could have done was to simply agree with her and get out of here as fast as possible.

On top of that, I even kept my formality. No other better answer could have existed!

I approached the door, an idea came to mind: I probably should be as nice as possible towards her. That way her opinion of me may slightly improve — hopefully so that the “price” decreases.

“Are you on your way out?”

As I opened the door, I looked back towards Linca. With my arms, I held the door open hoping she would appreciate my kind act.

Unfortunately, she shook her head side to side.

It was expected but it seems as though she was still angry at me. It may take some time, but this was a great first step to leave a good impression on someone who probably is the most angry towards me.

I decided from here on out, I should be acting as kindly as possible towards Linca.

***

“Did you really insult the Royal Family?”

Linca Asked.

This wasn’t a question to confirm. Rather it was a question to get the conversation — or more so the confrontation — started.

Linca already had an answer set in her mind. This man was a treasonist.

She didn’t know what exactly he did or said, but for him to be kicked out of his family, it had to be something awful.

Even if he was to deny it, she simply wouldn’t have believed it.

“...”

However, Gray didn’t respond to her. To Linca, it seemed as though Gray knew that she had no intentions of listening to his excuses.

'I have to say something.'

Linca called on Gray and stopped him. However, she didn’t really have a clear idea of what she was going to talk to him about.

Seeing the face of someone she was so angry about the last couple days was enough for her to directly confront him. At this point, Linca was slightly regretting not planning things out before going straight towards Gray.

'I will make you pay for the things you said to the royal family.'

No, this was too much.

Linca didn’t know what Gray did. If the conversation moved to the content of the insult, it would be obvious that Linca didn’t actually know much about what Gray said.

Besides, it was unhonorable for her — a mere student — to be asking him to pay a price for something his family already dealt with. In a sense, Gray already had paid a price by being kicked out of his family.

But that thought made Linca angry. Although she was a student now, she was eventually going to be one who directly served the royal family. She couldn’t just stand and watch this man roam around the academy.

'A man shameless enough to not leave the academy after insulting the royal family..!'

The blood of the Behlmers flew in her body. She didn’t want to just treat Gray normally.

Something. She had to say something. Even just a warning. Linca thought that it was her duty as a member of the Behlmer family.

That’s why she went to stop Gray. With zero thoughts about how it would go.

Gray was still silently standing in front of her. An emptiness was looming on his face. It has been over 2 minutes since Linca stopped Gray. There wasn’t an ounce of frustration or restlessness that Linca observed. It almost seemed as though he was waiting for Linca to speak.

‘... It feels kind of awkward if he’s not saying anything.’

Linca was slightly flustered by the patience that Gray was showing. He clearly wasn’t relaxed judging by his facial expression, but he looked as though he was kindly waiting for her.

It was then when Linca realized how weird she probably looked to Gray. She suddenly came out of nowhere, asked him a question he couldn’t answer, then held him randomly for no reason without a word for over 2 minutes.

It was starting to feel embarrassing for Linca.

“I won’t be asking you to pay more price for your insults for the royal family.”

In panic, Linca just said whatever came to her mind.

“B..but instead I… I will crush you! Uh… during the battle classes..!”

Linca was stuttering. She didn’t really know what she was talking about but she knew it was probably something weird.

“I will make you pay your price..!”

Linca’s face grew completely red. She tried to look as calm as possible, but it clearly didn’t feel as though it was working. The last line seemed a little contradictory, but as long as she got the warning across, she thought it was okay.

Beating them in class. It’s not that weird right? It was completely normal for students to be competing with each other for grades.

Thinking back, Linca was kind of proud about what she said. She felt bold. Linca was prepared to crush Gray when given the chance. With almost a smug face, she waited for Gray’s response.

“I understand Miss. Behlmer.”

With a smile on top of his short response, Gray slowly turned back and walked outside the training facility. The radiating calmness that he showed towards Linca’s bold proclamation was very noble. Obviously, more so than the radical behavior that Linca just showed.

“Are you on your way out?”

He even held the door open before leaving the training facility.

All Linca could do was to shake her head side to side.

“Ahhhh!”

Linca was frustrated. She wanted to say something back but she couldn’t say anything. Nothing came to her mind to fight back the gentleness that Gray showed. If he got angry, she would have at least felt better. Now it just looked like she randomly declared war on some guy she never talked to in the year before for no reason like a crazy person.

This was when Linca decided.

She would crush Gray no matter what happened.